November 12th, 2013 by Lyle Smith

WD My Cloud EX4 Released

WD has launched the EX4, a new 4-bay NAS in their My Cloud line for small businesses, pro users, workgroups and anyone looking for a reliable way to save, share, back up, stream and manage large amounts of digital data. The My Cloud EX4 is similar to its brethren, the My Cloud, only it has more bays for better data integrity and more business features such as dual power supply. Additionally, there are new management features that come with these extra bays.

There are several capacity options with the My Cloud EX4: an 8TB, 12TB or 16 TB model as well as a drive-less enclosure, which allows users to customize their capacity and add additional drives as their library of digital content grows. Additionally, with Easy-Slide-Drive technology, the My Cloud EX4 allows for easy installation or hot-swapping of drives in mere seconds without the need of additional tools. Customers can also attach compatible USB 3.0 hard drives to the USB expansion ports.

When sold with disks, the My Cloud EX4 features the WD Red line of hard drives, which are specifically designed for home and small office NAS systems. WD Red drives are powered by NASware 2.0 technology, improving drive reliability as well as the protection of customer data in the event of a power loss or disruption. The WD Red hard drives also feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology that significantly improves the overall drive performance and reliability. WD has a qualified list of HDDs for the EX4 that include a wide variety of drives from other manufacturers should buyers prefer to use their own drives.

The My Cloud EX4 give users numerous options to secure their digital data from potential loss by providing RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 in addition to spanning and JBOD modes. The My Cloud EX4 can also be used to back up all computers and devices with WD SmartWare Pro software for PC users while Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple Time Machine backup software to protect their data. Additionally, it can backup itself; either to another My Cloud EX4 in a different location, or to cloud services such as Amazon S3 and ElephantDrive. Lastly, the My Cloud EX4 includes redundant power supplies and Ethernet ports to ensure 24/7 data protection and reliability.

My Cloud EX4 can also serve as a digital entertainment hub for the home, which can be configured up to 16TB (pre-RAID) worth of movies and music. This media can then be streamed to any DLNA/UPnP certified multimedia device, such as gaming consoles, smart TVs, and WD TV Live players. Additionally, the Twonky 7.2, DLNA-certified 1.5 media server and iTunes server can be used for simple streaming of large movie and music libraries.

Customizable NAS, monitor system health, manage users and energy saving features with the My Cloud EX4 dashboard, as well as use a suite of third party apps, including aMule, Icecast, Joomla!, phpBB, phpMyAdmin and SqueezeCenter.

Mobile apps, which allow users to view photos, stream video and share, save and manage files from anywhere on their smartphones or tablets. The mobile app makes file sharing and collaborating simple and secure, allowing customers to easily email files, share files as a link, and print and open files with third party apps. The My Cloud mobile app also integrates major public cloud services so that customers can easily transfer files from their Dropbox, SkyDrive and Google Drive public cloud accounts.

Price and Availability

The My Cloud EX4 is now available at select U.S. retailers as well as online at the wdstore.com and is priced at $379.99 USD for the drive-less unit, $799.99 USD for 8TB, $949.99 USD for 12TB and $1,149.99 USD for 16TB. Additionally, the My Cloud mobile app is currently available for download from the App Store and Google Play. My Cloud EX4 comes with a two year limited warranty.